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Survival characteristics of the free-living cercarial population of the ectoparasitic digenean Transversotrema patialensis (Soparker, 1924)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

R. M. Anderson
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of London, King's College, Strand, London WC2R 2LS
P. J. Whitfield
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, University of London, King's College, Strand, London WC2R 2LS

Extract

The survival characteristics of free-living cercarial populations of Transversotrema patialensis were described and shown to be age-dependent. The maximum life-span was found to be 44 h with a 50% survival at 26 h. Activity and infectivity of the larvae were also characterized by age-dependence, and were demonstrated to be closely correlated with one another. For individual cercariae, both activity and infectivity had dropped to extremely low levels many hours before death occurred. An attempt was made to interrelate activity and infectivity, in a theoretical manner, with the availability of energy reserves.

Conceptual understanding of the biological processes involved was aided by the formulation of simple mathematical models.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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